


It Feels Like Home

by lrhaboggle



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Alternate End, Cheesy, Elizabeth lives, It's all Henry's fault, Michael lives, Sappy, Siblings, Siblings reunited, Simulator AU, air vent, eveyrone else still dies though, fnaf - Freeform, he takes her home, stupid air vent, they survive the fire, unrealistic fire-proof stuff, unrealistic survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 06:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16571375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lrhaboggle/pseuds/lrhaboggle
Summary: In a double whammy, both Michael and Elizabeth somehow survive the burning down of the Pizzeria Simulator, but will they survive a reunion with one another? Neither is on very friendly terms but, then again, loneliness just may drive them to forgive and forget...





	1. Chapter 1

"This ends for all of us. End communication," the tape recorder said, its message echoing throughout the entire pizzeria.

"Hey! Wait! What?! What's going on here?! Where am I?! And WHO DID THIS?! SOMEBODY LET ME OUT!" Michael didn't remember falling asleep, but he did remember waking up, though he had no clue where he was. He tried to get up, move from his sitting position, but he could barely move because in every direction he tried to go, there was a solid metal wall in the way. Panic tore through his heart.

"Good God, is this some kind of metal box?!" he wondered. It was pitch black so he had no clue if his guess was correct, but as he managed to move his hands around and try to get a physical sense of where he was, he began to think that this theory just might've been true...

"NO, NO, NO, NO! LET ME OUT!" Michael screamed at the top of his lungs, pounding on all six of the walls that surrounded him, but they were so cold and hard, so unyielding and unforgiving, that all he managed to do was nearly break a knuckle. He took in a deep breath, ready to scream out one last time, but then the sound of something slamming into his box made him jump, though he didn't go very far or high. But the sound was muffled and the box was totally undeterred by whatever it was that had just collided with it. Once again, panic clouded Michael's mind. Where in the pizzeria was he that something so presumably loud and heavy could slam into him and all he would know of it was a muffled thump? Then, all around him, the sounds of things collapsing and crashing continued and, at last, Michael realized something.

"Henry's plan!" he was speaking to himself, but referring to the plan that he and his employer had come up with. That plan was to burn this pizzeria and every single one of those possessed robots to the ground so that everyone could finally move on into the afterlife. But Michael was supposed to have burnt with them! So where was he? And how and why? He couldn't even feel a temperature difference, though he could hear what sounded like hissing and sizzling so he knew that the pizzeria really had been set on fire, just like Henry had wanted. But why was Michael not able to see it and burn with it just like Henry had also wanted? Or had Henry not really wanted that at all? Had he really wanted Michael to live this whole time and this box was his way of protecting Michael?

"If that's what this is, Henry, then you better hope to high Heaven that I live or I swear that when I die, I'm going to kill you again!" Michael muttered to himself, panic subsiding now that he had a better understanding of his current predicament. It still wasn't good but, knowing that Henry was probably the one responsible for this, Michael at least knew his fate had been placed in the hands of someone he trusted. Sure, maybe this wasn't the most orthodox ways of saving the life of a friend, but Michael was willing to bet that this box had been specifically designed by Henry to survive an inferno and that it would hold true to its design.

In fact, as Michael continued to run his hands across the walls, slower this time, he felt a hole in an upper corner that led to a tube. An air supply! And on the upper corner across from that was a box-shaped lump. Since Michael couldn't see it, he had no clue what it was, but he was willing to bet it was some kind of lock for him to escape the box once the fire subsided. Much calmer now that he knew he was somewhat safe, Michael could only shake his head sadly, somewhat grateful at the lengths Henry would go to protect him and save his life, but also somewhat hurt because they were supposed to have all died together. That had been the whole point of this last pizzeria, for everyone to move on together, both man and machine, good and evil. They were supposed to have gone together...

Michael didn't remember falling asleep, but he did remember waking up. This time, though, instead of pick blackness, the bright white light of the sun was what greeted him. Wait. What? The sun?! All at once, Michael shot awake, rubbing his eyes and hardly daring to believe that it was true... But it was! That surely was the sun! The door to his box-prison had opened! And now, with the light streaming in, he could see that his conjectures about the box had all been right! That little hole in the top corner was in fact an air supply, the tube disappearing into the flat and seared ground and, doubtless, popping up somewhere a ways away from the burn site. Then that tiny box thing had in deed been a lock, though it was set on a timer to open at 6:00 am. Ha ha, very funny Henry. Additionally, on the wall his back had been pressed against was a message in sharpie:

"I know I promised you that we would all burn together, but you must forgive me one last time for yet another failure on my part. Although you are most certainly a man, when I look at you, even now, I still see you as a little boy, and I could not bear to burn you, so I saved you, hid you, in this little safe. Now, you are alive. Please forgive me," and it was signed in Henry's signature.

Michael's relief at being freed from the box was diminished as he read the sobering message, conflicted feelings about Henry's actions returning. Again, he was grateful for Henry being so protective of him, but did the man not know that death might've been the kinder option? Because what did Michael have to live for now? No job or friends or purpose or will to live, and most importantly, no family. Those animatronics and the two men that had created them, though very twisted, had been his family, and now they had all gone up in smoke, leaving him behind as the lone survivor and the only family member still in this life instead of the next. He was all alone.

Screeeee, thump CRASH! Hmmm, maybe not so alone after all? The grating sound of metal on metal, followed by the two loud crashes, roused Michael from his stupor and he whipped his head around to see... a part of the vent shaft. It was the only thing still standing in the now flat, barren, black stain that had once been the ground on which the pizzeria used to reside. Michael almost laughed, seeing that one tiny vent still mostly upright, albeit black and still smoking a little. Guess he wasn't the only one who accidently survived the fire! But then, something below the vent began to move and that was when it occurred to him that the sound had not been the vent, but something quite massive within it falling back out. Wait. Weren't the things in the vents supposed to have been reduced to mere soot and ash? So then who...?

"Elizabeth!" Michael's eyes widened as he gasped out the name. At the same time, the thing that had fallen out of that lone piece of vent rose up. As sure as he was Michael, that giant thing was the twisted, broken, charred, smoking metal body of Circus Baby, the robot his baby sister had possessed. How had she survived too? And in such good condition (given the circumstances)! Surely that one little puny vent shaft hadn't been what had saved her! Right? Well, Michael was going to find out...

Elizabeth's massive back was turned to Michael, all kinds of wires and junk coming off and out of it. Michael could only stand and stare at her massive metal form as she swiveled her head around, just as confused as Michael had been moments ago. He only waited tensely for her to turn around completely and see him. He didn't have to wait for long.

"You're not who I expected to see..."

What followed was a very strange reunion.

"Elizabeth? Oh! Elizabeth!" although Michael knew how dangerous she was, he was far too relieved to see that she hadn't been changed to terribly by the fire to care. Instead, he almost smiled at her, though the expression was not returned at all.

"What happened? Where are we? Where is Daddy?" she demanded, voice low and growly as she glared down at Michael.

"Oh, Elizabeth, don't you remember? Everything was burnt down last night! We're standing right here, on the pizzeria! Don't you recognize it? And Father? Well, with any luck, he's dead!" Michael's pleading expression turned grimly satisfied.

"Don't you dare say that!" Elizabeth snarled. Because her voice was still in Baby-mode, it was soft, smooth and flat, but Michael heard the aggression behind it and he knew he had it a sore spot. But if it hadn't been her tone, it would've been the way she raised her half-melted but still sharp claw and aimed it right at him.

"Whoa! Wait! Hang on a second!" Michael commanded, taking a step back as Elizabeth lurched forward.

"Hold on? Hold on?!" Elizabeth mocked as she jabbed. Michael dodged the blow nimbly, having already escaped most of her range of attack. "You tried to kill me, to burn me down! You and that awful Henry man! Yes, I remember it, I remember it all now! He said that you had tricked us! Had brought us all back together just to get rid of us again! And now you, sneaking out of the plan and surviving as well, have the gall to tell me to hold on?!" all throughout her soft-spoken rant, she had swung and stabbed at Michael with her claw, but since the fire hurt her more than it hurt him, he was able to evade every blow and it took her a physically long time to wind up for another attack.

"It's not like that, Elizabeth!" Michael pleaded. "I wasn't trying to survive either! We were all supposed to go down together! But Henry chickened out at the last second and he saved me!"

"Of course he would!" Elizabeth spat, trying to take a step towards Michael. But it took her too long, and he jumped away again. "Is he alive too?"

"No, he's dead," Michael replied with a certainty that could not be shaken even though he had no proof. "Everyone is... Except you and me."

"Good riddance," Elizabeth snarled, taking yet another low swipe at Michael's legs. She still missed. It was kind of heard to be a psychotic robot-killer if you could barely move or, you know, kill!

"How did you survive anyway?" Michael asked, ducking this time as Elizabeth made a painfully pathetic swipe at his head.

"That vent! Thank goodness," she growled, gesturing with her non-clawed hand to the piece of metal standing tall behind her. "It was quite an accident too, like your survival! I had been stuck in it when his recording went off. He said he wanted to burn me too, but I guess that I was lucky and, somehow, the flames didn't reach my part of the vents..." she paused, clearly just as confused by the logic and luck of that as Michael was.

"But that doesn't matter now!" she muttered at last, waking herself up again and trying for another attack, which still missed. "I'm free and alive and that is all that matters and even if you took Daddy away from me, I can still honor his memory! I will rebuild myself and I will unleash a wrath that would make even his pale in comparison! He would be so proud! And you, dear brother, would be the first to die!" she grinned wickedly, the one facial plate she had left pushing outward in a smile. The other plates were all gone, either melted or hanging by literal threads off her face.

Suddenly, then, with an inexplicable surge of strength, speed and agility, Elizabeth lunged and Michael was finally hit. He was able to avoid most of the blow, jumping to the side, but Elizabeth still slammed into him and because she had a massive metal body that was seven feet tall and weighted 585 pounds, that glancing blow still really hurt. It sent Michael flying and, when he landed, the wind was knocked out of him. He coughed and gasped as Elizabeth shakily skated over to him, claw raised.

"You'll regret killing Daddy, Michael. You always were so much weaker than him. Was it jealous that drove you? Or just stupidity?" she asked mockingly, then she plunged the claw down. Michael was able to roll away again, but he could practically feel the metal gaze his ear.

"No! Elizabeth! Stop!" he commanded, surprisingly unafraid given that he was literally inches away from death. "Father was a monster! You and I both know that! So forget any of those stupid, poisonous lies he tried to plant in your head and LISTEN!" while Elizabeth continued to try and attack, coming very close each time, Michael rolled closer to her once to avoid her claw and then grabbed onto her leg to swing himself back upright and under her legs. She turned around relatively quickly, given down dilapidated she was, but Michael was still able to get a few seconds heard start as he fled, still shouting over his shoulder to Elizabeth about how evil and manipulative their father really was.

"I know you loved him and I know you think he loved you, but I assure you that he felt nothing for you beyond what you could offer him physically! He didn't really care about you, just how powerful your body was! And the man you were loving was only the man he was pretending to be in order to gain your trust! The father you love does not exist! You've been loving a lie, an act, a show!" he cried.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Elizabeth shouted in frustration, skating after her pesky brother in outrage. "You take that back!"

"But even if he were, even if was truly genuine, was that really the life for you?!" Michael continued to shout, panting as his legs began to weary. Elizabeth saw this and urged her own on faster, ignoring his words. "Is killing really want you want to spend the rest of your life doing? Is that really what'll make you happy? Because I don't think so! I know you, Elizabeth, and while you definitely have your faults, yes, you are not a killer! You are not a monster! You are so much more than that and have the potential to have a life equally as grand! This is not your only option! Maybe this was Father's, but that's because he was a scum bucket! But not you, Elizabeth, you can be so much more! You don't have to kill in order to have a good life! There is more out there for you, I know it!" Michael continued.

"LA LALALALALA LAAAA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Elizabeth pretended to sing over Michael, but it didn't work. His words still managed to burrow into her head. They wormed their way in so quickly that even when Elizabeth managed to catch Michael again, she still failed to kill him.

"Listen to me, Elizabeth," Michael panted as her hand closed around his torso and she lifted him up, ready to snap his head clean off with her claw. "I know you think that this is what you like and you think it is what you were born to do, but I tell you that it's not! No one is ever born to do anything! Sure, circumstance may put them in certain situations, but that's not birth! That's the environment surrounding birth! There is always a choice in who you get to be, even if it's not always the best choice or even if it's not always your choice! But the point is, no matter what, you were never "made" to do or be anything. You got to choose! Now, maybe you didn't exactly choose this life, I grant that, but you can still change, Elizabeth. This doesn't have to be your end!"

"Oh? And what could possibly be left for me?" Elizabeth spat, lowering her claw but bringing Michael in closer to her razor-sharp teeth.

"Anything," he replied. "Because I will help you get there."

"You?" she cackled, teeth clicking together as she did so. They were the only thing on her body that were mostly still intact.

"Yes, me," Michael replied softly, coaxingly. "Your big brother, Michael. I wasn't there for you before, but I will be here for you now. That's the choice I have made, and the person I have decided to become. Whatever you want or need, I will help you. Even if a killer is really what you want to become and you really want me to be your first victim, I will allow it. I just want you to know that I'll be here to help you explore other options first..." he continued to pledge his faith and loyalty to Elizabeth and although such submission was very dangerous, it actually began to work on the poor robot's confused mind and her gears began to turn the other way...

"You can't be serious, Mikey," she murmured, Baby-voice slipping back into her real, Elizabeth-voice, accent and all.

"Deadly," Michael replied with just a touch of humor, relieved to hear his sister's real voice talk to him and not her animatronic Baby voice.

"And you would really help me with anything at all? No matter how crazy?" she pressed. He nodded. "What happened to wanting to burn me?"

"We did that to set your soul free and stop your rage-induced pain. We could still do that even now, if you wanted," Michael answered calmly.

"A suicide pact?" she scoffed, but Michael only nodded again, still deadly serious. That was when Elizabeth slowly lowered Michael's body. She did not let him go, but she did begin to ponder, his words finally really making her think.

It was a big thing he was offering her, and quite a new and attractive thing, if she was being totally honest with herself. It would've been the first time anyone ever let her take charge of a situation and actually respond to it positively instead of trying to cut her down or brush her off. Even Daddy had always been so bossy! But now here Michael was, promising her anything! Including the keys to his and her own life and death. That was a pretty big offer on multiple levels. And while those were extreme examples, they weren't even close to covering all the possibilities in Michael's promise. If he really meant he'd let her pick her life and he'd support her through it, just how far would that loyalty really go?

At last, Elizabeth set Michael back down.

"I accept your offer," she said formally, even offering to shake on it (with the non-claw hand, of course).

"Deal," Michael grinned up at her, his hand barely even covering one of her fingers.

"But you'd better be telling the truth and keep your promise!" she warned, just a slight childish and warning whine entering her voice.

"Pinky promise!" Michael was still grinning, but he raised his pinky up either way.

"I'm being serious Michael! You'd better not disappoint!" Elizabeth crossed her arms.

"I won't, I promise! I'm being serious too," Michael vowed, still holding out his pinky. Elizabeth continued to stare at it in disgust, but then at last, something of a sigh escaped her massive form and she uncrossed her arms, once again extending her non-claw hand and touching pinkies with Michael. Her fingers were far too big to wrap around his.

"Deal," she said.

"Deal," he replied.

"But now, what do we do first?" Elizabeth almost sighed again, straightening back up.

"Well, first, I'm taking you home and both of us are going to do a bit of self-repair," Michael chuckled darkly. "Now come on, I can have you hold onto the back of my car as I drive and you can just skate home after me," he said.

"And you don't think that'll be weird or that people will stare?" Elizabeth almost sounded amused.

"Eh, what do I care what they think? I'm already the freak of my neighborhood. My neighbors look away when they see me coming and they cross the street when they pass my house!" he spoke as he led Elizabeth out of the ash and to the parking lot where his car was, thankfully, unharmed.

"How awful," Elizabeth mumbled actually somewhat sincere, also relieved that Michael's car had been unburnt.

"Not really, actually," Michael replied as he climbed into the driver's seat. "It makes it easier for me to keep alone and keep secret."

"I suppose," Elizabeth replied, then, while Michael revved his car's engine, Elizabeth grabbed onto its back and both of them propelled forward at the same time, Michael hitting the gas and Elizabeth pushing herself forward on her skates. With that, and without another look back, both of them left the burnt pizzeria behind them, only a little box and piece of vent still standing.

30 minutes and many terrified, disgusted, disbelieving, shocked stares later, Michael and Elizabeth had reached Michael's home. As Elizabeth released Michael's car and skated up the driveway to his door, she could hear cries of terror from the other neighbors. It didn't bother her nearly as much as she thought it would. Instead, she only followed Michael's lead as he unlocked the door. It still took a few minutes to fit her inside the house but, in the end, they managed to do it with only a bit of collateral and, once Elizabeth was standing in her brother's living room with him at her side, she couldn't help but smile, but this time, it was one of true happiness and not malice or sadism.

"Hmmm," she said. "It feels like home..." and it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Here you go, Nightmare noob! Your AU to the Simulator game’s ending! Hope you like it!
> 
> Also, I understand that Michael and Baby’s survivals were both a bit unlikely and that the whole “skating Baby home on the back of Michael’s car” is also unrealistic, especially with all the people that would see them, but hey, you can’t deny that this gave the ending at least a bit of happiness, am I right? Anyway, don’t forget to review!


	2. It Feels Like Home AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: As the chapter title says, this is an AU off the previous chapter. You're supposed to read the first half of the first chapter until you get to the part where Michael finally walks up to Baby. That's where this story starts. I just didn't see the point in re-posting the whole first half of this chapter because it would be the exact same as before. The AU change doesn't come in until about this point. Anyway, read on!

What followed was a very strange reunion.

"Elizabeth? Oh! Elizabeth!" although Michael knew how dangerous she was, he was far too relieved to see that she hadn't been changed to terribly by the fire to care. Instead, he almost smiled at her, though the expression was not returned at all.

"What happened? Where are we? Where is Daddy?" she demanded, voice low and growly as she glared down at Michael.

"Oh, Elizabeth, don't you remember? Everything was burnt down! We're standing right on the pizzeria! Don't you recognize it?" he asked. Elizabeth's facial plates, or what was left of them, shifted in wariness, but she did as Michael implied she should and scanned her surroundings. Yup. He was right. This was in fact where the pizzeria had once stood. She could tell based on the surrounding area, or at least, the part of it that the fire didn't get to. She uttered a low hiss of anger.

"Where is Daddy?" she demanded again, voice soft and low.

"Well, with any luck, he's dead!" Michael's pleading expression turned grimly satisfied. Elizabeth reared back in anger and Michael could tell that she was about to yell at him for such a snide remark but she didn't get to utter a sound before something else interrupted. It was a low, rumbly, echoing sound that repeated itself over and over again, but the longer it went on, the more Michael realized that it sounded like laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh Michael, Michael, Michael, surely by now you know that you cannot kill me with just a bit of fire?" it was a voice that spoke to him, but it hardly sounded human, impossibly deep and raspy, rumbling and growling. Michael and Elizabeth both whipped around in the direction of the voice but they wore totally different expressions. Michael looked horrified while Elizabeth, delighted.

"Daddy?!" Elizabeth was first to ask, and sure enough, yes, rising up from the ash was William Afton, bunny suit hardly burned at all.

"Father? But how?!" Michael demanded in terror, taking a step back as his father took a step forward.

"Foolish boy, do you really think you could fool me twice? You tried once to burn me down and it didn't work. Why would you be so stupid as to try again?!" William laughed again, the massive bronze jaw on his suit flapping as he did so.

"But we did everything right this time!" Michael cried frantically. "Henry and I, we both-"

"Henry!" William interrupted with a callous scoff. "You really think that old buffoon of a man could do better? You were an idiot to think someone so senile, old and mentally ill would be able to offer up anything of real use. He's been out of the game for decades now! His skills were rusty. He had no idea what he was getting himself back in to, though I hope he knows now..." then William scoffed, gesturing to something far to the right of Michael. He dared to turn and see and he nearly retched when he did so. It was a charred skeleton, not a scrap of flesh or muscle left on the bones.

"I'm telling you, son," William spat coldly. "You made a mistake, trying to use a previously failed method to kill me again instead of creating a new one. Like I told you, I knew it was a lie the moment I heard of it, so I took precautions. Henry isn't the only one who knows how to make a fireproof hiding spot," the decaying rabbit twitched as William's horrific laughter shook its metal shell again. "And now that Henry is dead and you have nowhere left to go, it seems to me that you have actually finished my work quite nicely! You got rid of that thorn in my side and burned down your own and only asset. Now, there's only one loose end left to tie up..." William cocked his head in Elizabeth's direction and she, still grinning crazily, lunged at once, propelling herself forward and skating at Michael with terrific speed, claw extended.

Michael was saved only by the fact that Elizabeth had been far enough away that he'd had time to react and avoid her attack. Had she been even an inch closer, she wouldn't have been able to dodge her blow in time.

"Elizabeth! No! Stop!" Michael commanded as Elizabeth turned expertly on her skates, readying to charge her brother again.

"Oh, ha ha ha, and what do you think you're going to do to stop her?!" William crowed, crossing his arms proudly as he watched the battle unfold. "She works for me now, Michael. You had your chance to save her, but you didn't, so then I stepped in! I gave her everything you never could, never did. She loves me now, not you!" the bunny bragged, ears flopping as he nodded in self-appreciation.

"No! That's not true! That's not true at all!" Michael bellowed, scampering away again as he felt Baby's claw nearly skim his turned back. "I did save her, I did love her! I gave her all that I had! The only reason she was even able to get this far is because of me, Father! And what did you do? You did nothing but scoop up the pieces that I had already so painstakingly put back together! It wasn't you that sacrificed anything for her, it was me! I was the one who went through all that for the sake of her freedom! All you did was emotionally manipulate her as soon as you saw fit and you only re-entered her life when you decided that you needed her on your side!" Michael continued to accuse, dodging blows from Elizabeth.

"Silence! Impudent boy!" William finally was goaded into arguing with Michael. "How dare you accuse me of doing such a thing?!"

"What thing? Being a fair-weather friend instead of a real father who sticks by his daughter no matter what?!" Michael laughed breathlessly, but the laugh was cut short as Elizabeth finally landed a blow. It hit Michael right in the gut and he went sailing backwards, landing hard a few feet away.

"Ha! You did it Elizabeth! Well done! Oh, you make me so proud!" William cheered. Elizabeth, having ignored most of the previous argument between her father and brother, turned around to smile sickly at her father, pleased by his praise.

"Shall I finish him off, Daddy?" she asked sweetly.

"Of course, darling, go ahead! He's all yours!" William waved benevolent at Michael, who was struggling to stand again.

"No, Elizabeth, don't listen to him! He's just using you!" the man gasped through his pain, clutching his stomach.

"Oh, come on, Mikey, I expected a retort more clever than that!" Elizabeth laughed coldly, softly. "Could it be that you are just afraid? Or perhaps jealous that father is a thousand times the man you'll ever be?" she continued tauntingly, taking her sweet time to skate over to Michael since he was barely able to stand, let alone run anywhere.

"No! I mean it Elizabeth!" Michael continued to growl through his pain, still clutching his stomach. "If Father really were so great, he would kill me himself! But no, while you chased me around our battlefield, doing all the work, what did he do except watch?"

"I resent that!" William shouted, having heard this remark from his wayward son. Michael ignored him in favor of listening to Elizabeth.

"Hey! He's entitled to a break when he wants to!" she defended. "I've seen him kill before, and sometimes we've killed together! So whatever you're implying, you're wrong! He's not weak or lazy!"

"But you're in worse shape than him and yet he's insisting that you do his dirty work?" Michael cried incredulously.

"He needs his rest!" Elizabeth repeated, fiercely loyal William.

"Does he really now?" Michael mocked bitterly. "If he were so tough, why can't he finish me now himself?! Look at me, I can barely stand! And yet he still won't try to kill me himself even though there's nothing he loves more than murder? Or can it be that he's still afraid of me, even now, weak as I am? And rather than risk his own neck to see if I really can be killed, he's throwing you under the bus first?!" Michael continued to spit. He was still holding both hands to his stomach where Elizabeth had hit him, but he was standing straight now, anger strengthening him.

"What?! Darling! No! That's not true at all!" William cried, hobbling over to where his children stood. He could see the way Elizabeth had lowered her claw, pondering what Michael was saying. That wasn't a good sign. "He's just trying to get inside your head, love!" he continued pleadingly as he finally reached Elizabeth's side, extending a rotting hand to touch one of the metal plates on her forearm. "He's tricking you!"

"Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black?!" Michael laughed grimly. "But seriously, Elizabeth, how do you believe he's really the god he claims he is if you're the one he always sends out first? When has he ever landed the first blow?"

"In all the times we killed those stupid city citizens before we were dragged back here to this pizzeria!" Elizabeth replied angrily, though the fire in her voice was flickering down now. "We managed to get a few street rats before you came along!" she snapped accusingly.

"And by "we" do you mean that William would only pick on the especially weak ones while he had you go after anyone bigger?" Michael asked.

"Enough! Michael!" William interrupted, hiding worry under anger. "It is only common sense that she take on bigger foes because look! She stands a head taller than I and a head and a half taller than you! And she has that wicked claw! What do I have but my own hands?" William looked down at his bronze-covered palms. "She is more built for combat than I!"

"And yet you never thought of upgrading yourself, Father, to be like her?" Michael continued to threaten softly. "And you've just admitted, now, that all you've ever done was hide behind her! Even back when she was still just Circus Baby, by admitting that she was designed for combat means you just admitted, too, that as much as you loved to kill, fear always drove you to hide behind someone bigger! Even when your victims were only little, innocent children," Michael broke off in disgust, tightening his arms around his midsection.

"Enough of this stupidity!" William replied, snarl exceptionally harsh and hissing now. "Elizabeth! Finish him!" he commanded, but Elizabeth didn't even move, Michael's words starting to take hold on her.

"I don't think I want to, Daddy," she murmured softly.

"WHAT?!" William thundered.

"I mean, not without you," she amended weakly. "Would you fight him with me?" she asked, and all three of them knew at once that she was testing him, seeing if he really would push his own weight in this father-daughter duo.

"Alright. Fine. But only because you seem to think that I somehow am only using you even though I've been nothing but good to you ever since I found you alone, stranded on the side of the road!" William reminded his daughter angrily, then he took a step towards Michael. He raised his fist, ready to throw a much, but Michael got there first and threw a fish of ash right into William's face. That had been why Michael had held his stomach for so long. It wasn't totally from pain, it was because he'd been holding a secret handful of soot for that whole last argument!

"ARGH!" William thundered in rage and pain as the flecks of dust stung his eyes and clouded his vision. Though he had a metal body like Elizabeth, his corporeal body could still feel pain. Elizabeth, too, had died inside of her animatronic, but in a secret cavity within that robot's chest. Her body was far "safer" than William's, whose own body could still be seen even through the wires and metal plates of his tomb. William clawed at his eyes while Michael bent down, grabbed two more handfuls, then popped back up, throwing one at each of his family members.

"Well, come on then!" Michael cried. "If you want to kill me, then do it! I never said I'd go quietly though!" then before anyone could say anything else, he took off running.

For the next 10 minutes or so, the three of them raced around the ashy landscape. By some miracle, Michael managed to outrun his father and dodge his sister every time either of them came too close. The reason Michael was continuing to draw this little game out was not just for fun or bragging rights, though, instead, since this moment was supposed to be William's chance to prove himself to Elizabeth, Michael dragged this game out just to show her that he wasn't. After all, he claimed to be like a god of war and death, yet here he was, unable to catch his own son who wasn't even that strong or fast to begin with.

"Come on, Father! You have to do better than that!" Michael scoffed as William tried to hobble-run over to him. Then he turned his attention to Elizabeth. "Seriously? Can't you see that he's not good enough for you? Don't listen to him anymore! He's not worth it! He brings nothing to the table! He's only using you so he can hide behind you! He's making you do all the hard work because he can't do it himself! He's useless! Maybe he can't die, but he's hardly living either! But you, Elizabeth, could be and do so much more if you would just leave him!"

Michael continued to preach to his sister, imploring her to see how bad William was for her and how much he was holding her back and just using her as a doormat and human shield and, when William was unable to prove Michael wrong, Elizabeth finally began to listen. Sure, she still felt affection for her father and distaste for her brother, but she couldn't deny that Michael was making a lot of solid points. And it seemed everything her father did, or tried to do, only proved his points even more. Father was pretty lame and lazy, unskilled and uncoordinated, too bulky and weak to do more than look scary. But if he couldn't deliver on any of his threats, what was there to fear? What was there to respect or love or stand by? What kind of partnership was her father really having with her if she had to do all the hard and the dirty work while he stood back and gloated, only actually working when it was easy for him? How was that fair or equal or loving?! How was that more than simple manipulation? Well, it wasn't. And Elizabeth began to see it, the longer her father tottered around, shouting obscene threats all of them knew he could not keep.

At last, Elizabeth had seen enough. She came to a halt at once, the wheels on her skates going totally skill.

"What are you doing, Elizabeth? Can't you see he's tiring? Kill him!" William commanded angrily.

"No, Father," she replied, and in that one change of name for him, William knew his days had just ended. "Michael's right! You really haven't been pulling your weight around here! And I know that's because it's hard for you to do so like this, but like Michael said, why not try to fix yourself up? Or at least not make me do all the hard work?!" she complained.

"But Elizabeth! I thought you liked killing people!" William whined right back, raising his hands as he took one step back.

"Only because I thought it would please you!" she cried back.

"It does!" William tried to smile, it didn't work anymore.

"But why should I care what you think?" Elizabeth demanded. "Especially if you are so useless and manipulative? Why should I care what pleases you when there's nothing you can really do to please me?"

"I can be proud of you," William whimpered weakly.

"But that's not enough!" Elizabeth shouted again. "I don't want my existence to be contingent upon your validation and approval! What have you, like Michael said, brought to the table to make it equal? What stake do you have to lose if I were suddenly to hate you?" she demanded.

"My life?" William guessed.

"So that's it then?" Elizabeth's voice suddenly became impossibly soft. "All along, you were never afraid of losing me, you were afraid of losing yourself! You were never afraid of angering me except if it might cause harm to you!"

"Pretty much," Michael agreed, having listened to this whole turn of events with the biggest most boastful smirk anyone had ever seen on him.

"Silence!" William snapped, whipping his head around to face his son angrily, despite the more pressing issue coming from his daughter.

"No, Father, maybe it's time for you to be quiet for once!" Elizabeth said, then, proving William's point, she grabbed him by the neck in her claw and raising him nearly six inches off the ground. He began squirming at once, panicking, helpless as a bigger thing was about to kill him.

"What? Elizabeth! No! Don't do anything stupid!" William choked in fear. "I mean, can you blame me for being afraid of what might happen to me if you get made because you've pretty much just validated my fears?!" he grabbed at her claw in desperation, but it was unforgiving.

"This isn't stupid, Father, it's the only smart thing I've ever done," she growled. "And yeah, maybe you were right. Maybe you did have real reason to fear me. But if you had actually loved me for real, then that fear should not have even crossed your mind, but the fact that you were scared of the idea of me overthrowing you tells me that you knew all along you weren't treating me right. You just hoped I never would find out! Well guess what, Father? Because of Michael, I have, and now that's exactly what I'm going to do: overthrow you! And you have Michael to thank for it, and your own stupid, selfish pride!" then with one quick flex of her arms, her claw clamped shut and William's head popped right off his shoulders.

Although Michael had wanted to see William die for a long time, to see it be done so quickly, cleanly and remorseleslly, especially by his own loving daughter, made Michael feel almost queasy and he looked away when William's head rolled towards him. Elizabeth then dropped William's headless body right on top of his severed head and skated over to them both. Before Michael could ask what she was doing, she began to violently stomp both body and head into the ground with her massive, heavy skates. She uttered a string of angry cries every time she brought her foot back down on her father's corpse and Michael was deeply shaken by how violent and angry his sister was at the moment. She didn't stop until both bone and metal had been flattened into one, pressed into the charred ground around them. It would take a very big, powerful crowbar to pry William's body off the ground and they would never be able to find a body because it had been so thoroughly squished into the suit by Elizabeth's ceaseless and powerful jumps.

"Good riddance!" she growled, fists clenched as she finally ceased stomping on her father's corpse.

"Well. That was... impressive," Michael murmured, shaking with fear from Elizabeth's intensity. He had forgotten that she was capable of having quite the temper! But with William gone and only Michael and her remaining, her face softened at once.

"Oops," she said. "Sorry I scared you," then something akin to a sheepish grin stretched across the two facial plates she had left and Michael gave her a nervous laugh, accepting her apology and promising her that it was all good, but he still sounded shaken and scared as he said this.

"So now, what do we do?" Elizabeth asked, all traces of anger and hurt gone.

"Well, first, I'm taking you home and both of us are going to do a bit of self-repair," Michael chuckled darkly, trying to control his shaking. "Now come on, I can have you hold onto the back of my car as I drive and you can just skate home after me," he said.

"And you don't think that'll be weird or that people will stare?" Elizabeth almost sounded amused, quite a change from moments before.

"Eh, what do I care what they think? I'm already the freak of my neighborhood," Michael shrugged, shaking finally mostly stopping. Then he, on slightly unsteady feet, led Elizabeth back to his car. Thankfully, the fire had not touched it. He hopped into the driver's seat while Elizabeth held the rear of it with a massive hand and claw, trying not to leave any dents anywhere. Then, once Michael revved his car's engine, Elizabeth pushed herself forward on her skates, both of them propelling the car together. Then, with that, and without another look back, both of them left the burnt pizzeria and the finally-dead body of their father behind them, only a little metal box and a piece of ventilation still standing.

30 minutes and many terrified, disgusted, disbelieving, shocked stares later, Michael and Elizabeth had reached Michael's home. As Elizabeth released Michael's car and skated up the driveway to his door, she could hear cries of terror from the other neighbors. It didn't bother her nearly as much as she thought it would. Instead, she only followed Michael's lead as he unlocked the door. It still took a few minutes to fit her inside the house but, in the end, they managed to do it with only a bit of collateral and, once Elizabeth was standing in her brother's living room with him at her side, she couldn't help but smile, but this time, it was one of true happiness and not malice or sadism.

"Hmmm," she said. "It feels like home..." and it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Surprise, Tjoc rap, they got the time wrong and my day-long event doesn't start until 2. Because of that, here's your AU on the previous chapter posted a day earlier than I thought, LOL. Also, the way I have it written, you're supposed to read the first half of the first chapter until you get to the paragraph where Michael finally confronts Baby, then that's where this story picks up. I just didn't feel like rewriting the whole first part out since this is only an AU on the previous chapter.


	3. Bonding

William might've been dead and the Fazbear franchise might've been over, but neither Michael nor Elizabeth had been able to wake up from the nightmare. Not yet, at least, because both of them had been forced to endure the fallout of what William's death and the franchise's ending had caused, and then of course, there were the demons that stood on their shoulders and in between the two of them as well, an ever-present issue. Michael and Elizabeth had, of course, both tried to rekindle their relationship, but bonding wasn't as easy as one might've thought.

Even though both sibling had saved the other, Elizabeth was still pretty distrustful of Michael, too afraid to trust anyone again in case it led to her being hurt or abandoned once more (it had happened far too many times for her to forgive or forget) and, to top it off, Elizabeth's desire for blood hadn't been entirely sated yet either. It wasn't like she could just flip a switch and turn off her vengeful desires. Instead, those were inner battles she fought daily, torn between just killing Michael in his sleep and continuing her revenge-fueled rampage or sparing Michael and trying to reform, just like he'd said she could. And Michael had a lot of issues to work out too, like being a good brother to the little sister he hadn't seen in years, dealing with all of his mental and emotional issues and fallout, not just wanting to set fire to himself and Elizabeth again just to take the easy way out, and more. In short, neither of the surviving Afton children were getting very far in terms of a full recovery...

"Hey Elizabeth," Michael murmured one night about three weeks after the night the pizzeria burned down and the day he and Elizabeth had been reunited again against all odds.

"Hey Michael," she replied, voice soft and almost resigned. It had sounded this way ever since the day after he'd taken her home, after the afterglow of their reunion had finally worn off.

"How are you doing?" he asked awkwardly, having no clue how else to start up a conversation or how to bond with his sister.

"I'm alive," she sighed again. She was, presently, sitting on the living room floor, staring at the TV, though it wasn't even on.

"That's good," Michael said awkwardly, walking cautiously over to his big little sister, sitting on the couch cushion closest to her.

"How are you?" Elizabeth replied, pitying Michael's horrible conversation skills.

"I'm doing good," he tried to sound upbeat, but it just came off as way too forced.

"That's good," Elizabeth echoed hollowly. She was spinning one of the wheels of her roller skates mindlessly.

A painful silence reigned between the two until Elizabeth finally asked the question.

"What do you want, Michael?" she asked, finally sighing in defeat.

"What do you mean?" Michael replied, genuinely confused.

"Why are you here?" Elizabeth clarified. "Why are you talking to me?"

"Can't a man talk to his own sister?" Michael replied, trying again to sound upbeat. It didn't work this time either.

"Of course he can, but when that man is you, it doesn't usually happen without a purpose," Elizabeth muttered darkly, but she wasn't wrong.

The only time Michael really talked to her was when he had a need to. He never "just" talked to her, for the fun of it. Although, initially, Elizabeth hadn't minded, after about two weeks of it, it became quite disheartening, like he didn't really want her around anymore. And to think! He had been the one to insist that William had been toxic to her! Well, how was Michael any better at this point? Hardly even looking at her? At least William had interacted with her. Elizabeth almost missed him and began to regret ever choosing to side with Michael, though she still could not bring herself to harm him. As mad as she was at him and all he had done to her and their father, every time Elizabeth tried to imagine herself avenging herself and killing, or even hurting, Michael, almost made her feel ill. After all, she really did feel bad for hurting him. Not because he was her brother or her savior or because he was Michael Afton, but because he was human, and like he had said, killing was not in Elizabeth's nature. Maybe it was in Circus Baby's, but she was not Circus Baby. She was only trapped in Circus Baby's body.

Though thanks to some repair work from Michael, that body was a bit cleaner and sturdier. He'd straightened and polished all of her metal plates and replaced the ones that were missing or in total disrepair and he'd done likewise with all of her wires, circuits, buttons, gears, diodes and everything else on her endoskeleton that hid behind those metal plates. That had been the closest they'd ever been to genuine bonding. And the only reason Michael hadn't just made her a new body altogether was because he didn't have the money for it. And Elizabeth knew this was true because Michael had been working at a Fazbear pizzeria. Everyone knew that franchise only ever paid minimum wage to any of its employees.

"Well, I was just wondering, you know..." Michael began awkwardly. "If you might've just wanted to, well, maybe just... try bonding?"

"Bonding?" Elizabeth echoed, restored facial plates shifting in something like amusement as she spoke the word like one who did not understand.

"Yeah, hang out. You know, watch a movie, play a board game, something like that. Do what normal siblings do," Michael gave her a pathetic, terrified smile. Elizabeth wondered if he realized he was twiddling his thumbs or shaking his legs. It was obvious how hard and terrifying and awkward it was for him to talk to her like this, especially after all they'd been through. Elizabeth even had half a mind to scoff at such a childish, foolish offer and then rebuff him for being such a simplistic, idealistic idiot, to think that a movie and a board game could ever be shared between the two of them! But no, instead, Elizabeth surprised even herself and she nodded.

In the end, the duo settled upon watching the 1951 Disney film "Alice in Wonderland". It was ancient by then, but a classic nonetheless. It was almost comedic, a slouchy, grouchy man sitting on a couch with a massive hunk of metal at his side, both of them staring expressionlessly at the screen as a blond girl in a blue dress ran after a white rabbit with a pocket watch, a tiny red kitten following after.

"What a stupid movie," Elizabeth muttered at one point as the two fat boys, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, literally came bouncing onto set, emitting weird squeaks whenever they collided, which was quite frequently. But even so, she paid rapt attention to the film.

"It really is," Michael agreed at one point, as Alice wound up growing to the size of a house... while inside the house. He fought the urge to make a remark about how that scene reminded him of Elizabeth herself, it having been quite hard to squeeze her massive form into his own little abode.

But because this was a film that they had watched back when they were still children, hence why they had agreed upon it in the first place, both of them began to smile during the Mad Tea Party scene.

"I remember this scene," Elizabeth whispered, something like nostalgia causing her voice to break. Michael even saw her raise a giant metal hand to her chest right where a heart should've been. Michael smiled then, as he remembered too. Elizabeth and Charlie used to sing that song all the time, pretending to throw their own Un-Birthday parties and Mad Tea Times right there in the living room of the Afton's original house. Back then, Michael had thought that it was stupid and girly, but now, seeing it made something within his old and battered chest pulse just a bit faster.

And then he had the same reaction during the "Painting the Roses Red" scene. He could still remember the day William had come home to find the backyard and his daughter covered in red paint, Elizabeth having taken the song to heart. They hadn't planted roses that year, so Elizabeth chose to paint the sunflowers red instead. It hadn't gone nearly as smoothly as the film showed, but William hadn't done more than roll his eyes before carrying his whining, Red Queen-like daughter in the house, Michael snickering as she, finally, got into at least a bit of trouble with William.

When the film ended, Elizabeth sighed wistfully.

"Wish I could wake up as easily as Alice," she said.

"Well, I still certainly wouldn't want Alice's fate," Michael tried to ease the mood again. "Running around, eating all that weird food on a whim?"

"Well, you pretty much fell down a rabbit hole all your own. We all did," Elizabeth shook her giant head, Michael's attempt to cheer her up failing.

"I guess you're right," he tried again to cheer Elizabeth up, even though the first attempt had failed. "My chasing down the Fazbear legacy was a lot like Alice chasing the white rabbit, both of us wound up with a one-way ticket to Crazy Town!" he laughed weakly.

"The Mad Tea Party did remind me a bit of what some of the animatronics I used to live with were like," Elizabeth agreed with a weak laugh as well. "They were a nutty bunch, just as endless and confused, chasing down a day that would never come. And some of the technicians reminded me a bit of the caterpillar," she added with a nasty grin.

"Same," Michael replied, laughing for real now. "I've met several other Fazbear workers and I bet you most of them were high every single day!"

So at last, the two began genuinely conversating. For once, dialogue was not forced or fake. It didn't feel awkward to talk about their lives or feelings and, without even meaning to, the two finally began to really bond.

"So, what about that game, then?" Michael asked at last, genuinely smiling.

"And what game could I possibly play?" Elizabeth laughed back. "I'm too big to play any board or video game and your house is too small for anything like Hide-n-Seek or Tag!" she said and Michael cringed as he realized she was right.

"Oops," he said, trying to hide the fact that he'd already brought Scrabble, Monopoly, Parcheesi and Life down to offer up to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, however, had since seen the games and, after teasing Michael over it, dared him to a game of her own.

"I bet you could fit a whole board game into my hand, in fact!" she challenged, then she extended a massive palm towards her brother.

"What?" he asked in confusion.

"Pick a game, set it up in my hand," Elizabeth replied and, although he was a bit surprised and amused by such an idea, Michael obeyed.

In the end, he managed to get all four of those games set upon Elizabeth's hand (not all at once, of course). Elizabeth had then tried to play with her other hand (that one being a claw), but even the very tip of the claw was too big to really play with. She ended up crush a die from Parcheesi, breaking several pieces in Life, tearing the money in Monopoly and never being able to pick up the smooth tiles of Scrabble (which were so tiny she needed to hold them right up to her eye to see them in the first place).

"Yeah, never mind that then," Michael grinned sheepishly as Elizabeth broke another handful of game pieces. "Sorry."

"Why don't we just watch another movie again instead?" she suggested hopefully, carefully setting down their latest board game.

"Of course!" Michael replied, just glad to see Elizabeth finally warming up to him. If anything, she seemed to be quite tickled by her inability to play tiny board games anymore, having laughed every single time she broke something. He had been worried she might throw a fit, bitter that her body would not let her live as a normal human, but instead, she seemed amused, as though she had wanted to see not if she could play these games, but how many times she could mess one up. If that were true, then mission accomplished!

"So, what'll it be?" Michael asked as he set the last game away and turned to the tiny movie shelf.

"Well, are there any other "Alice in Wonderland" films?" Elizabeth asked. "It's been quite a few years since the first one was released."

"Oh, so you want to go back down that rabbit hole again?" Michael teased and Elizabeth nodded enthusiastically, so Michael only shrugged and quickly whipped out his phone, looking for other "Alice in Wonderland" films.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Here you go, Darmulzombie! Your little, fluffy sequel! I know I wasn't able to hit on every point you asked, but since I did feel like this was predominantly, fluff, I didn't want to make it too dramatic or emotional (hence why neither of the two Aftons ever really talk about the day they reunited, or anything else serious like that). Besides, I think it's time we give the two a break and let them just have some more light-hearted fun! Don't you agree? LOL


End file.
